--------------------------------------------------------------------------------"Heinrich Schliemann, the great 19th-century German archeologist, found the ruins of Troy by studying the poetry of Homer very attentively," he said. Mr. Schliemann, too, got a skeptical reaction at first.

Atlantis was described in two of his dialogues, the Timaeus and the Critias. "Plato says it was located in the Atlantic Ocean and on an island and that tribes living on it took part in wars in southern Europe and in North Africa before one day the island sank between walls of water," Dr. Aksyonov said. "I believe that the objects in the pictures once stood on the surface too, though specialists say it's difficult to believe the seamount could have sunk so far," he said.

Cities Lisbon Earthquake

He says that the catastrophc earthquake in Lisbon in 1755 caused a tidal wave and a flood that left part of the city forever beneath the sea. Something similar, he surmises, may have happened to an island of which the Ampere Seamount would be the submarine remnant.

The legends around Atlantis have been nourished over the centuries. It has been variously located in America, Scandinavia, the Middle East and the Canary Islands, 500 miles south of the Ampere Seamount.

"The ocean is full of mysteries," Dr. Aksyonov says. "And our investigations are the beginning of our understanding."